That doesn't sound that good to me.
If there are 3 players left with 2 players only having kings left and the third is just collecting points by double checking their kings instead of checkmating them (which would be enough for a win) I would not mind either player resigning.
It is not correct to make a punishment for all the resignation types. There are 2 different cases:
1. Resignation (including time out and disconnect) during the first few moves. AKA "Early resignation." When a player abandons a game at its early stage and ruins the game for other 3 players. There should be a punishment.
2. Resignation after the 10th (roughly) move. No punishment. Anyone can resign at any moment after the 10th move, it is their right.
Hi guys, thank you for all the comments!
So here is what I make of all this:
If a player resigns or disconnect while:
1: No points have been gained by any player
2: No promotions has been made by any player
3: The player that resigns or disconnects is not in check
4: The game has gone 20 or less plies (maximum of 5 moves/player).
The game is aborted for the remaining players, but the player who resigned loses rating
Also I would add this variant: if a player disconnects on move 1, the game is aborted outright.
Kudoos to Martin0 by the way, as these criterias were his idea
People who resign in the first 10 moves clearly dont care about their rating, so would be no deterrent to them. Blocking them from playing for an hour would be a better way to get them to think twice.
10 moves is too short. I have had games absolutely ruined by resignations. Even when they have a clearly lost position, the impact of resignation vs the chance to mate or win a Queen first can be devastating to a player with a carefully planned attack.
A recent game I played in where an opponent suddenly resigned when both I and another player had him in check, forced me to either not win their king or to give up my only queen when the other 2 players both had 2 queens. Another 4 moves by the player who resigned and I get the King for free without getting crushed by my opponents. Was really annoyed in that situation, through no fault of my own, because someone decides to resign at an inopportune time.
My suggestion would be at 30 moves feel free to resign, otherwise block them from playing for an hour.
no resigning whatsoever untill 2 players are left.
I also want to encourage players to never resign until there are 2 players left, but there are some cases where resigning is legitimate, such as the one I mentioned in post #2. We can't really prevent players from resigning since they can always time out and I don't see any type of punishment that feels good.
The best I can come up with is a popup window that comes up when your about to resign with some text like "Are you sure you want to resign? Resigning will make the game less fun for the remaining players and might give a player an unfair advantage." or something similar. Many will probably not care for such a message, but it will at least increase awareness that you might ruin the game for other players by resigning.
It's not people's fault if their internet disconnects.
Must admit I have lost a few on time, the limit is fairly brutal, and it a nightmare being the first out due to time. Would make if difficult to penalise resigners, who could simply let their clock run down if resignations were banned
How about, game auto-aborts if internet disconnects in first 5 moves.
I may be in the minority here, but can't resigning be used as a strategy in certain situations? I'll give an example where I did just this:
Players A, B, C and myself. The rankings are as follows: (1) Player A is in the lead, (2) I"m in a distant second, (3) Player B is in third and could catch me, (4) Player C has been check-mated and will finish in fourth. I was going to be the next to be check-mated.
In this situation, if Player B checkmated me, he/she would have overtaken me in points. I blocked them until Player A, who was going to win, could take my king. I then resigned and he/she took me
I finished in second precisely because I had resigned. Had I not, Player B would have eventually checkmated me and overtaken me in points. They were in a better position to checkmate.
Thus, the resignation was part of my strategy. As long as the game is points-based, resigning to give a particular player points will be a strategy.
@ Martin0 that's about right.
It's just the darn rating range needs to be working. Strong players dont resign in weird moments that ruin the game for everyone.
Players resigning in this game (ffa) should lose double rating points imo as resignations really ruin the game. At the start someone resigns and the person left sitting in the middle of the other Two remaining players is onto a hiding to nothing. Not only does he have no chance of winning the resignees king but due to being between the Two remaining players he will be a natural target.
Resign later and it has a big impact on who wins the king.
One common scenario is where you check a player who then resigns.
Ok so he resigns because everyone about to pile in on him due to him being in check. However the resignation has a huge bearing on where the points go.
Basically the person who put him in check wins the king on his next move and scoops up the points. If the player had not resigned it is more likely one of the other players would have reaped the reward.
I propose resignations should only be allowed without penalty once only Two players remain as before then it is too disruptive and needs punishing.
Thoughts?